Would she have been a lady of fashion, had she been…? Aurelie couldn't imagine it; she could easily imagine Mother and Ana scolding her about it, and Desiderius, too. Des and Father could have complained about it amiably, the fashionable interests of Steerpike women, with all the love she had always heard from Father when he said such things. After dinner, perhaps, or before some sort of party—

Aurelie tried to put those thoughts aside. They only hurt; it was her own fault that she couldn't seem to keep herself from bringing them out, again and again.